2001 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
| 2001 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament |
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| Teams | 64 | ||||
| Finals site |
Savvis Center St. Louis, Missouri |
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| Champions | Notre Dame (1st title) | ||||
| Runner-up | Purdue (2nd title game) | ||||
| Semifinalists |
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| MOP | Ruth Riley Notre Dame | ||||
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The 2001 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament began on March 16 and ended on April 1. The tournament featured 64 teams. The Final Four, held at the Savvis Center (now Scottrade Center) in St. Louis, consisted of Connecticut, Notre Dame, Purdue, and Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State), with Notre Dame defeating Purdue 68-66 to win its first NCAA title. Notre Dame's Ruth Riley was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
With the Final Four held in the Missouri for the first time in NCAA history, 10th seeded University of Missouri rose to the occasion and upset 7th seeded Wisconsin in the first round. They then went on to play the 2nd seeded team from Georgia and won that game as well, advancing to the regional, where their bid to play in their home state ended in a loss to Louisiana Tech. Missouri State also did well. They were seeded 5th, so expected to win their first round game, but they went on to upset 4th seed Rutgers to set up a game against the Regional's top seed, Duke. Missouri State upset Duke 81—71 to head to the regional final against Washington, who had upset both Florida and Oklahoma. The upsets came to an end as 5th seeded Missouri State beat 6th seeded Washington 104–87 to advance to the Final Four, and a chance to play in front of home state fans.
In the Mideast Regional, the top four seeds all advanced to the regional semifinal, then both higher seeds were upset. 4th seed Xavier knocked off the number one seed in the regional, Tennessee, by a score of 80–65. Third seeded Purdue played second seeded Texas Tech in a game that came down to the wire. Purdue won 74–72, then went on to defeat Xavier for the spot in the Final Four against Missouri State. The upset run by Missouri State came to an end in the semifinal, as Purdue beat them 71–64. The career of Jackie Stiles, who had scored 1,064 points during the season, the only player in NCAA Division I women's basketball history to score 1000 points in a season, came to an end.
In the Midwest and East regionals, both number one seeds advanced to the Final Four. Both Notre Dame and Connecticut were from the Big East and met in the other semifinal. The two teams had met twice before in the season, with Notre Dame winning at their home and UConn beating Notre Dame ant he big East Championship. Early in the game, the prior year National Champion Connecticut looked headed for another championship game The Huskies led at one point by 16 points in the first half. In the second half, Notre Dame came back, and with just over twelve minutes left, took their first lead of the game. Connecticut went into a scoring drought, going more than five minutes without a point. Notre Dame went on to win 90–75, to head to their first national championship game.
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